Until his retirement in September 2008 Paul
worked extremely hard collecting news articles and organising them as a
handy reference. The page below is merely his "News
Roundup" - snipped from UnjustIS just before it closed.
This collection should be preserved - it may just help someone.

Help Wanted!!! Does
ANYONE out there have the time to continue this work? Please drop me
a line. I cannot possibly hope to follow in Paul's footsteps, but if
you DO find a related news article PLEASE send me a link and at very least
we will have a collection of links all in one place. Any experts in
RSS out there? Thanks!

A solicitor defrauded the
health service of more than £270,000 over eight years, the Audit Office
has said. Most of the late George Brangam's fraud involved medical
negligence cases, the government watchdog found. He would invoice health
bodies for more money than the case had actually been settled for, then
keep the extra cash, ranging from £1,250 up to £75,000. Auditors found
the fraud could have been detected earlier if existing financial
controls had been used. A senior partner in legal firm Brangam, Bagnall
and Co, George Brangam died last August. It has emerged he had earlier
received an award for excellence from the Law Society of Northern
Ireland. (Excellent by their usual standards UJ)

A solicitor has admitted
hiding a video camera inside a ladies' toilet cubicle and secretly
filming female staff. Stirling Sheriff Court heard that Peter
Fitzpatrick, 49, put the device into a cardboard box within the cubicle
at law firm Muirhead Buchanan in Stirling. The father-of-two, who has
been a solicitor for 27 years, was caught after a secretary noticed a
hole in the box was pointing at the pedestal. Fitzpatrick, of Rutherglen,
is due to be sentenced next month.

Three crooked members of
a family law firm who lived a life of luxury on £840,000 of clients'
cash have been thrown out of the profession. Imran, Saira and Shamim
Karim were described as "dangerous to the profession and the
public" after they kept money from property deals. Senior partner
Imran Karim, 40, boasted five cars including a Ferrari 335 Belinetta and
a north London flat, all paid for by clients of Karim and Co.

A magistrate from Croydon
known as "The Zoo Man" who trawled the internet for images of
children being sexually abused was today jailed for nine months.
Zoologist Terry Mills, 58, spent his days visiting primary schools
showing children exotic reptiles and his evenings building up a library
of child pornography. He watched a film entitled "German
Blondie" and received emails marked "British Boys" and
"Busy at Both Ends", Southwark Crown Court heard.

A PROPERTY magnate from
Canons Park who laundered at least £13.8m with an Ealing lawyer has
been jailed for seven years. John Donnan, 52, of Watersfield Way, ran a
series of bogus companies with his solicitor, Gerard Hyde, 55, of Priory
Gardens, allowing friends to operate a 16-month VAT fraud. The firms
imported mobile phones tax free but sold them on with an extra 17.5 per
cent profit, which was then shared with Donnan and Hyde.

A LAWYER from Highgate
has been kicked out of the profession after he blew more than £200,000
of his firm's cash on strippers. Divorced father of three Paul Saffron,
43, from Stanhope Road, raided the accounts of top law firm Radcliffes
Le Brasseur over more than three years. He spent most of the cash on lap
dancers in clubs across London. Colleagues at the 150-year-old law firm
called in the police when they discovered a £104,000 hole in the
accounts. Saffron insisted he was clinically depressed and had only
spent the money quickly so he would have no alternative but to kill
himself out of shame when he was discovered. But last Thursday, the
Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal ignored his pleas to be allowed to
stay in the profession.

A SOLICITOR who forged
another lawyer's signature on a legal document has been thrown out of
the profession. Philip Lowe, 42, formerly of Low Bank, Burnley, signed
papers so the estate of a client could be handled quickly, the
Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal heard. When inspectors raided his firm
they found he had been using client's money for his own benefit by
keeping the cash in his own bank account. Lowe, who, the hearing was
told, now sold paint for a living, tried to stage a cover up by wrongly
billing clients to balance his books. He has now lost his family, his
firm and his home because of his dishonesty, the hearing was told. Lowe
who ran his own firm in Main Street, Cross Hills, Keig-hley, was cleared
of fraud at a Bradford Crown Court trial but admitted using a false ins-trument
and was fined £515. Ian Ryan, for the Law Society, told the hearing
investigators found a £35,332 black hole' in Lowe''s books when they
raided the firm on July 4 2005. Money which should have been paid into
the client account had been deposited in the firm's account which were
controlled solely by Lowe.

Mrs K.C. writes: I
read in Financial Mail some time ago the result of the Financial
Services & Markets Tribunal hearing about solicitor Fox Hayes, but
there has been no further news. I foolishly invested practically all my
money, about £60,000, in shares sold by brokers represented by Fox
Hayes. I have recovered only £5,000. This has gone on for so long, I'm
now almost giving up. I will be 93 in June.

"Leeds solicitor Fox
Hayes, which is licensed as an investment adviser by the Financial
Services Authority, stupidly and corruptly teamed up with a network of
crooked boiler room share peddlers. Throughout 2003 and 2004, Financial
Mail repeatedly warned that the firm was fronting for known tricksters
posing as stockbrokers based in Spain. Privately, I gave full details to
Fox Hayes, proving that it was lending its name to mailshots from firms
run by people who would never in a million years get a licence from the
FSA, who did not have a licence from Spain's financial watchdog, and who
were selling shares so rotten that I'm surprised anyone gave you as much
as £5,000 for them..."It cannot be right that a firm or an
individual can commit an offence, pay a fine that is less than victims
have actually lost and then carry on as if nothing has happened."

Lawyer who killed his
wife is released after just two years - and inherits £950,000 from her
estate

A wealthy lawyer who
killed his wife after she had an affair is set to inherit nearly £1million
from her will after being freed from jail. Christopher Lumsden, 54, was
said to have "snapped" after his wife Alison, 53, announced
she was leaving him for a family friend. He attacked her at their £1.4million
mansion, slashing her on the face and neck with a knife so badly a
pathologist could not count the number of wounds she had suffered.

A solicitor who stole
more than £1m from a disabled client has been jailed for 10 years at
Machester Crown Court. Thomas McGoldrick, 59, of Faulkners Lane,
Mobberley, Cheshire, lived a life of "extravagance" while
taking the money from client Keith Anderson. Mr Anderson, 45, from
Croydon, had been awarded £1.8m after he was severely injured in a road
crash. Belfast-born McGoldrick was convicted of 59 counts of fraud in
February and was sentenced on Monday. He was £1.4m in debt when his
firm, who had practices called McGoldricks in Altrincham, Greater
Manchester and Croydon, took on Mr Anderson's case.

A SOLICITOR who took
money from the dead for work he had not carried out has been thrown out
of the profession. Christopher Dudzinski, 49, of Dudzinski and Partners,
Butts Court, Leeds, claimed thousands of pounds from the estates of late
clients and ploughed the cash into his firm. Investigators found he also
told customers he was investing their money when in fact it was being
kept in the firm's accounts. Financial records were not properly written
up and an investigation in 2006 revealed a £25,975 'black hole' in the
client accounts. Dudzinski accepted he withdrew clients' money before he
billed them for his work, the Solicitors' Disciplinary Tribunal in
London heard. "A large part of the shortfall, £21,230, was in
respect of costs transferred from client to office account in
circumstances where bills had not been delivered to the client,"
said Jonathan Goodwin, for the Solicitors' Disciplinary Authority.
Dudzinski was acting for the executors of a will when he took £2,350
from the estate of a dead man after his affairs had been completed. When
questioned, the lawyer said he thought he deserved more for the work
done previously.

Seven years jail for
lawyer who siphoned £900,000 from wills to feather his nest

A crooked lawyer has been
jailed for seven years after he looted £900,000 from wills and cash
meant for charity so he could send his children to public school, stock
up with vintage wines and drive a classic sports car. In the course of
28 years, Michael Wright, now 66, doubled or trebled his actual salary.
He set up seven false identities to channel the money from wills and had
the power to sign cheques paying legacies to their bank accounts. When
families complained or became suspicious he simply stole from other
estates to pay them what they were owed, Exeter Crown Court was told.
The lawyer, officially on £29,000 a year, was caught when his
employers, solicitors Harold Mitchelmore of Newton Abbot, Devon,
introduced a new audit system.

A Weybridge solicitor and
his wife have been stripped of £5.3million of criminal assets hidden
overseas. The Assets Recovery Agency was granted a High Court order to
take the money from John and Susan Ann Szepietowski of Ashford House,
Four Winds Park, St George's Hill, following an investigation prompted
by a separate drugs trafficking and money laundering probe by Surrey
Police. The ARA alleged the Szepietowskis had amassed a large property
portfolio through fraudulent mortgage claims and the laundering of
rental income through offshore accounts. It also alleged that the
Szepietowskis benefited from a phoenix fraud scam, involving the
publishing of adult magazines, and that their lavish lifestyle greatly
exceeded their known legitimate income. Solicitor Mr Szepietowski and
his former building society manager wife entered negotiations with the
ARA in October last year.

A CROOKED solicitor took
almost £100,000 from bereaved clients and used the cash to pay her tax
bill, a hearing was told. University of Huddersfield law lecturer
Lorraine Miers, 49, blamed her cheating husband for financial
difficulties when he had an affair with her student, the Solicitors
Disciplinary Tribunal heard. Yesterday she was struck off and ordered to
pay costs of £10,000.

A LAWYER who stole more
than £1m from a disabled man to feed his champagne lifestyle was
investigated for financial irregularities more than ten years ago, the
M.E.N. reveal. `Bent' solicitor Thomas McGoldrick, 59, was described by
police as `shameless, selfish, greedy and calculating' after being found
guilty of false accounting, money laundering, forgery and obtaining
pecuniary advantage by deception. He stole the money from Keith Anderson
who had been awarded £1.8 million damages as a result of a road
accident which left him paralysed from the chest down. And McGoldrick,
who lives in a luxury home in Mobberley, Cheshire, was only caught when
Mr Anderson had £200 left and the Law Society called in the police to
investigate...In 1997 he was criticised by the Law Society after more
than £40,000 went missing from a client's account.
This was followed by a series of other misdemeanours relating to his
accounts and the financial management of his firm, but despite serious
concerns, the Law Society allowed him to continue practising as a lawyer
until 2004. (The Law Society is no more than a corrupt gangsters'
union.UJ)

A solicitor who conned
more than £1m from a disabled client has been found guilty of fraud.
Thomas McGoldrick, 59, of Faulkners Lane, Mobberley, Cheshire, had
denied the charges at Manchester Crown Court. The court heard he lived a
life of "extravagance" while taking the money from client
Keith Anderson. Mr Anderson, 45, of Croydon, had been awarded £1.8m
following a crash which left him paralysed but McGoldrick claimed he had
"gifted" him the money. Mr Anderson was paid damages after the
accident in Croydon in November 1996, which left him paralysed from the
chest down. The solicitor, who had practices called McGoldricks in
Altrincham, Greater Manchester and Croydon, went on to take about £1.2m
of the cash.

A bankrupt solicitor
faces being struck off after he was convicted of forgery. A jury at
Bradford Crown Court acquitted 42-year-old Philip Lowe on two charges of
conspiracy to defraud in connection with a property scam after more than
five hours of deliberation yesterday. But he had admitted forging a
signature on a document before the start of the trial. The prosecution
had alleged that Lowe had been part of a plot, which also involved five
other people, to cheat owners out of properties in Rooley Lane,
Bradford, and Eastburn, near Keighley.

A disgraced Merseyside
solicitor has been jailed for two years for his involvement in a £1.5
million “advance fee” fraud. David Sasson made £250,000 from the
fraud, Liverpool Crown Court heard. Sasson had been struck-off after
admitting stealing from his employers. His father-in-law got him a job
with Carl Montlake and his business partner in 1993, working as an
underwriter. Based in Bury New Road, Manchester, Alliance International
Ventures was set up in 1997 and, according to prosecutor Jonathan Turner
QC, was “a fraud from the outset”. He added: “Its business was
ostensibly to offer funding to foreign applicants looking to raise
finance for business projects abroad. “The truth is, and always was,
that Alliance had no money at all. Notwithstanding their total lack of
funds, Alliance began to offer overseas customers sums of anything
between $500,000 and $120,000,000.”

High-life solicitor,
Thomas Byrne, goes on the run as mortgage ‘scam’ comes to light

They were the epitome of
the Celtic Tiger economic boom, enjoying to the full their good fortune
and wealth with money lavished on expensive cars, exclusive homes and
fine dining. Now one is on the run and the other has had his assets
frozen as the banks and courts go after two high-profile solicitors with
debts of more than £50 million. Ireland has never seen a legal scandal
like it, with one newspaper describing the fate of Michael Lynn and
Thomas Byrne as “a cautionary tale about the inevitable consequences
of the greed, arrogance and recklessness that fuelled the Celtic
Tiger”.

A Solicitor who falsely
claimed more than £4,000 in overtime and asked clients to write cheques
out to his personal account has been spared jail. Judge David Price told
David York that his actions were a breach of trust, but did not jail him
because he helps to care for his autistic son. He was sentenced to 12
months in prison, suspended for two years. York worked at Pyms
Solicitors in Bridge Street, Belper, on civil court cases.

A solicitor has been
found guilty of professional misconduct for making fake and inflated
legal aid claims. Paul Kirk, 48, from Uddingston, South Lanarkshire,
made thousands of pounds by double-charging and claiming false expenses.
The Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal, who looked at the case,
fined Kirk the maximum of £10,000. However, because he was no longer
registered as a praticising solicitor it could take no further action.
The disciplinary tribunal said it lacked the power to properly
discipline the lawyer. It wants legislation which would create tougher
penalties for rogue solicitors.

A solicitor who left
clients owing thousands in costs after a group damages claim against
former gynaecologist Dr Rodney Ledward collapsed was struck off today.
Jane Loveday represented more than 50 women who claim they had been
sexually assaulted by the consultant gynaecologist, who was barred from
practicing medicine in 1998. A subsequent claim for damages brought
against Dr Ledward’s former NHS trust, spearheaded by Mrs Loveday, was
dropped in 2004 after legal aid was withdrawn, a solicitor’s
disciplinary tribunal was told.

Tadley solicitor
handed six-month jail term for scamming banks and building societies

A TADLEY solicitor has
been jailed for his part in a mortgage scam. Robert Stober, aged 68, of
Silchester Road, Tadley, was handed a six-month jail term at Winchester
Crown Court last Thursday, July 19. Also in the dock was businessman
Douglas Caffell, aged 42, of Long Lane, Shaw, who received a suspended
sentence. In February this year, ringleader Phillip Carter, aged 41, of
The Green, Silchester, admitted four counts of false accounting, five
counts of conspiracy to defraud and three counts of obtaining money
transfer by deception. The court heard Carter had tried to re-mortgage
property without declaring his exisiting mortgages and loans. Several
banks and building societies fell foul of his scam.

A Plymouth-based
solicitor has been jailed for two years for fiddling cheques and
expenses totalling £19,000. Priya Prashar, aged 29, of Trobridges,
doctored cheques to make them payable to her own bank account while
working for another firm in London. She denied the charges but was found
guilty after a trial of false accounting, theft and perverting the
course of justice. Prashar, who gave her address as Harrow in West
London, moved to the Mutley-based firm two years ago after the offences
were committed in 2003 and 2004. But Trobridges partner Tim Waine said
that the firm only became aware of the allegations about nine months
ago.

A solicitor filmed in a
TV "sting" giving advice to an undercover journalist on how to
stop witnesses testifying has been struck off. David Lancaster, 57, from
Havant, Hampshire, was taken off the solicitors' roll at a Solicitors'
Disciplinary Tribunal on Thursday. Lancaster was jailed for three years
in October for inciting the reporter to pervert the course of justice.

The Financial Services
Authority (FSA) is locked in a court battle with a prominent firm of
solicitors that it wants to fine £150,000 for alleged offences
involving overseas “boiler rooms”. Alleged regulatory breaches by
Fox Hayes, a Leeds law firm, helped five boiler room firms to target
more than a thousand UK investors, who lost almost $21 million in 2003
and 2004, according to court documents. Fox Hayes approved 34 financial
promotions by boiler room firms, the FSA argues, and carried on in the
face of numerous warning signs that their customers were not being
treated fairly. Fox Hayes began its challenge yesterday in the Financial
Services & Markets Tribunal, which is essentially a court of appeal
for FSA enforcement decisions. (Updated news item 31
October 2007. UJ)

Mrs K.C. writes: I am so
ashamed I hardly feel able to tell you about my utter stupidity.
Stockbroker Tresaderns in Madrid persuaded me to invest in Satellite
Enterprise Corp and later Military Communications Technologies. As I was
paying through solicitors Fox Hayes in Leeds, I felt secure. I made
other investments too. However, a letter from Tresaderns told me they
were no longer in business. At 91, I am struggling... You were fleeced.
Almost all the shares you bought were in tiny American companies with
little or no track record. The shares were so high-risk that legally
they could not be sold to ordinary Americans. Yet Tresaderns was happy
to sell them and Fox Hayes was happy to accept your cash.(Updated news
item 31
October 2007. UJ)

Solicitor's life in
tatters after she admits stealing £1,300 from law firm

A YOUNG solicitor
yesterday admitted stealing cash from her employer. Zosia Fraser, 29,
was considered a promising lawyer with excellent prospects until her
dishonesty came to light. She was subsequently sacked from her position
with a Scottish law firm amid claims she was caught charging clients
upfront cash payments that she then pocketed for herself.

Solicitor Adrian Sam has
been made bankrupt by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) after his
law firm Adrian Sam & Co (ASC) assisted an illegal overseas boiler
room scam. The FSA took the action after ASC and the firm's former
partner John Martin failed to comply with a Court of Appeal ruling in
2005 that ordered the law firm to pay £360,000 to 63 investors to whom
it helped peddle cut-price shares as part of the scam. Jonathan Phelan,
the FSA's head of retail enforcement, said: "This case is a warning
to others who act as a UK front for boiler rooms that the FSA will use
its full powers against them where possible to recover losses for the
victims of their illegal activities."

A FORMER Ipswich
solicitor who siphoned off nearly £27,400 of a client's money, is in
disgrace today after being struck off. The Solicitors' Disciplinary
Tribunal found Keith Croft improperly transferred the funds into his
firm's account after telling a colleague he might keep the money left
over from a French holiday home purchase. Croft, a solicitor since 1983
and sole principal of Riddell Croft and Co in St Helen's Street, was
alleged to have breached the Solicitors Accounts Rules 1998, although he
did not attend the tribunal.

A law firm which earned
more than £400,000 in legal aid last year has been barred from further
work in the field, officials have said. The move follows an
investigation into the firm, Robert Taylor Solicitors of Bath Street in
Glasgow. The Scottish Legal Aid Board said it had removed the firm from
its register of criminal legal aid lawyers. "The firm and solicitor
cannot provide criminal legal aid or criminal advice and
assistance," said the board. Last year the firm's legal aid
earnings totalled £409,300. In November last year, the Daily Record
reported heroin users were paid in £5 notes to sign legal aid
documents.

A FORMER solicitor who
lost £250,000 through his business and a property deal admitted theft
and criminal damage when he appeared at Worcester Crown Court. Andrew
Dutton, aged 61, of Longmead Chambers, Birtsmorton, was said to be
penniless and eking out his £100-a-week benefit by offering legal
advice on a website. Giving him a two-year conditional discharge, Judge
John Cavell told him: "It's tragic to see a man of your
professional background standing in the dock at crown court over what is
a civil dispute. You behaved extremely stupidly."

A solicitor has been
ordered to do 180 hours community service after asking a
prostitute to arrange sex for him with a mother and an underage girl.
Glasgow Sheriff Court heard how Ian Donnelly had sneaked away from his
office for the encounter, but the vice girl called police and he was
arrested. Officers later found child pornography on Donnelly's home
computer. Donnelly, 43, who had admitted a number of charges, was also
put on the sex offenders' register for three years. The personal injury
solicitor, who worked for Lloyd Green in the city's Cadogan Square, was
also placed on probation for three years and ordered to take part in
counselling. (Unlikely to be struck off, though. UJ)

A solicitor has been
jailed for stealing almost £100,000 from clients to compensate others
he had failed. Jeremy Langworthy, 48, of Abergavenny, admitted taking
money from accounts to make up "acceptable" compensation sums
for other clients. Prosecutor Michael Mather-Lees told Merthyr Crown
Court: "Langworthy was effectively robbing Peter to pay Paul."
He was jailed for 18 months after admitting seven charges of theft
totalling £99,400 and one of forgery.

Solicitor who drew up
his mother’s will to inherit her fortune defeated in court

A Borehamwood solicitor
drew up his mother's will without her knowledge or approval' in order to
inherit part of her large estate, a High Court judge has ruled. Morley
Franks, 63, a partner in Turner & Debenhams, in Shenley Road, had
hoped to prove a will he drew up in 1994 was valid, but Mr Justice David
Richards said the solicitor was not a witness on whose evidence I can
rely' and not telling the truth'. Mr Franks has been practising in
Borehamwood since 1978, first as a partner in Measures Franks & Co
until 2004, then when it merged with Turner & Debenhams. He
specialises in wills and probate laws. This week, his firm refused to
comment on his position following the judgement, which took place at the
High Court in December.

A former Shrewsbury
lawyer who was struck off for pocketing a client’s cash has declared
himself bankrupt. Stephen Morecroft was ordered to pay £22,885.42 in
costs by a Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal in May. The hearing was
told Mr Morecroft was given £10,897.06 by a client for a deposit on a
new home to be bought off-plan. In November 2005 the Law Society
intervened in his firm, Morecroft and Co, in Barker Street, Shrewsbury,
and officials discovered the firm’s accounts held only £1,194. The
tribunal struck off Morecroft after finding a string of allegations,
which included accounts rule breaches and failing to act in the best
interests of clients, proved against him.

A newly-qualified
solicitor who admitted lying to cover up a basic legal blunder just
weeks after becoming a lawyer has been struck off. Michael Hopkins, 43,
misled his bosses at Inghams, based in Winckley Square, Preston, to
avoid exposing his error in exchanging contracts too early on a property
transaction for a client.

Four men have been jailed
for a total of 57 years for running an elaborate VAT fraud that cheated
taxpayers out of £10 million. The scam, which centred on the trading
activities of a Scottish company called Virgini Ltd, involved making
false VAT claims for mobile phones that were supposedly being imported
into the UK and exported to Ukraine. In fact, there was no evidence the
phones ever existed.

Director Durgesh Mehta,
51, was jailed for a total of 33 years after being convicted of cheating
the public revenue, money laundering, and conspiracy to transfer
criminal property under the Proceeds of Crime Act. His sentences will
run concurrently. The wealthy solicitor lived in the stockbroker
belt village of Chalfont St Peter, in Buckinghamshire, and commuted
weekly to Scotland. His three accomplices - Gerald Reardon, 55, from
Kent, Matthew Sharman, 43 from Essex, and Peter Ratcliff, 54, from
Surrey - each received eight year prison sentences for laundering the
proceeds through offshore companies.

A Golders Green solicitor
has been 'struck off' after stealing more than £100,000 from clients.
Winston Jesiah Held, 64, of Sinclair Grove, cleared the account of an
unnamed couple he was advising about selling their house, an industrial
tribunal heard. Held worked as a consultant at Jay Benning and Peltz and
Talbot Creggy in Marylebone.

A crooked lawyer from
Preston built up a property portfolio by taking more than £239,000 from
clients, including First World War veterans, a tribunal heard. Ian
Desmond, the 53-year-old former chief executive of the Lancashire law
firm Marsdens, misappropriated the money to buy houses. The Solicitors'
Disciplinary Tribunal struck off Desmond, of Mallowdale, Fulwood, after
hearing details of "the most appalling dishonesty".

A Havant solicitor
targeted by a "TV sting" has been jailed for three years.
David Lancaster, 56, from Harbourside, was convicted of inventing
stories to get a man off a drugs supply offence - unaware that he was an
investigative reporter telling him a cover tale. Lancaster was told by
Judge Graham Cottle at Exeter Crown Court: "You broke every rule in
the book in a breatttaking display of unprofessional
conduct."..."The judge told Lancaster the British criminal
justice system is held up as a model of fairness and good practice, and
in order to maintain that reputation it is of paramount importance that
professionals involved in the system behave at all times with honesty
and integrity."

A solicitor was jailed
for a year at the Old Bailey today for smuggling a letter out of
Belmarsh jail to help a gunman accused of shooting a trial witness. Maya
Devani, a former member of law firm Arani & Co, which defended the
radical cleric Abu Hamza, was convicted earlier this year of attempting
to pervert the course of justice. Her client, Timothy Merchant, was
found guilty of two charges of attempted murder and perverting the
course of justice and was jailed today for 18 years. Devani was told by
Judge Paul Focke: "The authorities need to be able to trust and
rely on the integrity of solicitors. You let them down."

HE was once a successful
and well- connected lawyer, a city councillor and a man tipped to be a
future Westminster MP. But yesterday, the political aspirations of Iain
Catto were ended forever when he was jailed for 27 months for stealing
£70,000 from a disabled client, who depended upon him as a close
friend. Catto took the money over two years from December 2002 to
maintain his lifestyle of foreign travel and exclusive restaurants after
losing his job as a solicitor. He now faces a hearing before the
independent Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal, where he could be
struck off.

A THIEVING solicitor who
was working as a Citizens Advice Bureau adviser while serving a
five-year prison sentence has had his contract terminated. The CAB
announcement was made the day after the Lancashire Telegraph revealed
that convicted conman Philip Pressler, formerly of Higher Whittlestone
Farm, Darwen, was being allowed to give advice to members of the public
who knew nothing of his past.

A CORRUPT solicitor has
been jailed for two years after a £300,000 scam was uncovered. Mark
Kerruish, 40, massively over-billed clients, some of them dead, while he
was the senior partner running Fielding and Co in Chorlton-cum-Hardy and
Cheadle Hulme.

A MAN once seen as a
potential future Tory leader in the Lothians has admitted stealing £70,000
from a disabled man. Former Conservative councillor for Prestonfield and
Mayfield, Iain Catto, 41, who is also a former solicitor, pretended to
care for Francis Fleming after he became partially paralysed. Catto, an
elected member from 1990 to 1994, had pretended to be a close friend of
Mr Fleming, 59, and volunteered to pay his bills and organise his life.
But he was regularly withdrawing sums up to £15,000 a time from his
client's accounts to fund his own lavish lifestyle. He even sold some of
his victim's shares.

Most budding legal eagles
have a grasp of what they can possibly get away with within the bounds
of the law. But when law student Andrew Curzon received a cheque for
more than £100,000 that had been sent to his address by mistake, he did
not bank on being caught trying to deposit the money in his own account.
Curzon, 19, of Lingfield Road, Wimbledon, wrongly received a Bank of
Scotland cheque for £117,533 in the post. It was made out to his
elderly neighbour as a payment from a pension fund that had matured. But
instead of returning it to its rightful owner, the teenager wrote his
name over the pensioner's, went into the Wimbledon Village branch of
NatWest and asked staff to put the sum in his bank account. (Start as
you mean to carry on. UJ)

A LAWYER who made a legal
blunder faces being struck off unless he removes his own name from the
profession's official register, a hearing has heard. Adrian Cole, 63,
landed himself in trouble after his name appeared on official notepaper
claiming he was a solicitor when he did not have a practicing
certificate. An enquiry heard on Tuesday that Mr Cole had not held a
valid licence to work as a solicitor since he was suspended for 12
months in 1999 for a number of serious legal errors. But Gerald Lynch,
for the Law Society, said that Mr Cole had sent a fax in November 2003
to Eversheds in Cardiff on behalf of a former colleague on paper headed
'Adrian E Cole solicitor'.

HUNDREDS of secret
disciplinary hearings held each year against solicitors are expected to
go public, in a drive to rid the profession of poor standards and
dishonesty. At the same time, solicitors could face regular “MoT”
tests in the shape of competence checks — to ensure, in the vogue
words of the Home Secretary, that they are “fit for
purpose”..."Last year, of 594 adjudications held after a
complaint about a solicitor, the society made 222 decisions to reprimand
or severely reprimand 139 solicitors. The more serious cases, where
conditions are attached to a solicitor’s practising certificate, are
already made public to people who inquire." (It just ain't gonna
happen. UJ)

A solicitor who played
the organ in his local church was jailed for three months on money
laundering charges today. Brian Dougan, 49, of Northern Ireland, allowed
£66,000 to pass through his client account while carrying out
conveyancing work for a convicted criminal. Dougan, who has been asked
to stand down from his position as a church elder, did not initially
realise the cash came from a criminal source, but continued with the
work even when he became suspicious..."Sir Stephen
Lander told the Law Society Gazette that a "bent
solicitor" was a "heaven-sent opportunity" for money
launderers. "There are not a lot of dodgy lawyers in percentage
terms, but a significant number are struck off for dishonesty. A bent
solicitor is a very important asset to a criminal gang – the client
account is a heaven-sent opportunity for money launderers to turn cash
into legitimate assets," he said."

A SHAMED solicitor who
created a fantasy client to fund his luxury lifestyle has been stripped
of £426,414 of his assets. Silver-haired Ian Macfarlane, 46, who has
been struck off the solicitors' register, used his ill-gotten gains to
pay for exotic holidays, school fees for his two children, property
investments and his own tax bill. Currently serving a three year and
nine month jail sentence, Macfarlane admitted 26 theft offences and
asked for a further 137 similar charges to be taken into consideration,
involving over £800,000.

Solicitor jailed for
sale link
A Shrewsbury solicitor has been jailed for 15 months for money
laundering after he carried out legal work on the purchase of a house
from two drug dealers. Phillip John Griffiths, of Emstrey Lodge, was
convicted of turning a blind eye to the purchase of a house in
Birmingham by estate agent Leslie Dennis Pattison for £43,000 — a
third of the property’s value. A jury at Warwick Crown Court yesterday
convicted the 44-year-old solicitor of entering into or becoming
involved in a money laundering arrangement. Correction 21 June
2006:Solicitor jailing
"We have been asked to point out that Shrewsbury solicitor Phillip
John Griffiths was cleared of entering into or becoming involved in a
money laundering arrangement during a recent court case. The
44-year-old, of Emstrey Lodge, was convicted of failing to make a
‘required disclosure’ to the authorities about a house sale when, as
a solicitor, he knew or suspected or had reasonable grounds for knowing
or suspecting money laundering was taking place. He was jailed for 15
months by Judge Marten Coates following a two-week trial at Warwick
Crown Court."

A Solicitor was jailed
yesterday for stealing £140,000 from his clients to fund a failing
second business. Richard Dawson, 54, put clients of Dawson's Solicitors
in "financial hardship" while he poured their money into his
new business.

A COUPLE are today facing
ruin and the loss of their home after a pair of smiling swindlers stole
£90,000 from their business. Engaged couple Tracey Holdsworth (42) and
Mark Jackson (50) were facing problems with their electrical firm when
they fell for the charm of Michael Brandon, who said he had the
financial know-how to turn things around.They little suspected that the
conman, and his partner Simon Rutledge, would bleed them dry and leave
them in despair. Today, the only consolation for Tracey and Mark, of
Dunsberry, Bretton, Peterborough, is that they were not the only victims
of the conmen's convincing story of business acumen. They can also take
comfort from the fact that glib-talking Brandon, who admitted 16 counts
of obtaining £250,000 from his victims by deception has been sent to
prison for three and a half years. His cohort, Rutledge, a disbarred
solicitor, has been ordered to do 240 hours of community work for his
part in profiting from the misery of others.

A dishonest Shrewsbury
solicitor who pocketed nearly £10,000 of a client’s cash entrusted to
him for a house purchase has been struck off. Stephen Morecroft, of
Battlefield Road, also forged vendors’ signatures on documents and
tried to trick a hospital into handing over confidential records.

A greedy solicitor who
stole nearly £1.3 million from clients' accounts to live a life of
luxury was today jailed for seven years. Timothy Miles, 45, a former
chairman of his local Round Table, paid off the mortgage on the family
home in Uxbridge and then bought himself a luxury flat in Gerrards Cross
which he furnished opulently when his marriage broke up. He also bought
a Jaguar car. He admitted 13 charges of theft and one of forgery of two
wills over a four year period until a routine audit while he was on
holiday led to his arrest. Miles, a salaried partner in the Uxbridge
firm of Bird and Lovibond which he joined in 1994, earning up to £60,000
a year, dealt with conveyancing, wills and probate, said counsel.

A solicitor from County
Armagh has pleaded guilty to involvement in money laundering at a
Liverpool Court. Brian Dougan, 48, from Brootally Road, Milford,
admitted using his firm's business account to handle money from a red
diesel money laundering scam.

A Flitwick solicitor who
dishonestly misappropriated more than £350,000 of clients' money to
help a crooked property dealer was thrown out of the profession on
Tuesday. Linda Collier, 45, of Glebe Avenue, handed over an initial £141,850
entrusted to her by a mortgage company to a businessman who claimed he
needed the funds to finance a string of home deals. The client, referred
to as Mr B, promised he would pay back the money on Collier's return
from a holiday to Luton law firm Churchman Thacker, where she was a
partner.

A DITHERING solicitor who
allowed a house to fall into ruin has been found guilty of professional
misconduct. The Scottish Solicitors' Discipline Tribunal heard William
Rennie, 53, of Kilmarnock, was asked to deal with the estate of a couple
who died just weeks apart, without leaving wills.

A Newton Stewart
solicitor has been struck off after being found guilty of 15 counts of
professional misconduct. Nicholas McCormick, 47, who traded out of
offices at 28 Victoria Street, was found guilty by a Law Society
discipline tribunal. It found that he had breached a catalogue of rules
and ignored complaints made against him by clients.

A CROOKED solicitors
clerk from Banbury paid off £4,000 of customers' debt with cash taken
from other clients, a misconduct hearing was told. Elizabeth Gough
pretended she had recovered the money owed to the clients in court
judgements when in fact she had simply taken it from another account. In
one case Gough paid out £1,886 and in another £2,000 was sent to
trusting clients using others customer's money, the Solicitors'
Disciplinary Tribunal heard. Bosses at Blake Lapthorn Linnell, in
Westway, Oxford, put her on extended leave in January 2004 to
investigate the cases when they discovered there was a problem.

The Financial Services
and Markets Tribunal has upheld a Financial Services Authority (FSA)
case against Allen Phillip Elliott after finding that he is not fit and
proper to work in any part of the UK's regulated financial services
industry. The Tribunal stated that Mr Elliott's history shows that
"he is not able and willing to comply with requirements placed on
him by professional rules and obligations" and that he was not open
and honest in his dealings with regulators. The Tribunal found that Mr
Elliott "poses a risk to the protection of consumers and a risk to
the reputation of the market" and it concluded that a Prohibition
Order was necessary "in order to protect consumers from risk and
… to maintain market confidence." Mr Elliott is not authorised by
the FSA, but he operates an unregulated mortgage investment scheme
through his company FMD Trustees Plc. He obtains client referrals and
introductions from authorised financial advisers who may be unaware of
his history. (Follow link, right, for full text)

A solicitor who stole
money from the dead and disabled has been kicked out of the legal
profession. Nicholas Pounder, 47, plundered the estates of dead clients
to pay off a car loan and went on a luxury holiday to Spain on money
belonging to a disabled man. The solicitors' disciplinary tribunal in
London heard how Pounder, a former partner in David and Snape, Wyndham
Street, Bridgend, stole more than £168,000 over six years, creating
bogus letters to cover his tracks.

A Norfolk solicitor who
agreed to falsify a lie detector test in order to help a client blow the
lid on a steamy love affair was yesterday suspended for two years.
Trevor Beckford, 53, of Hall Road, Thurton, near Loddon, was found
guilty at a Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal hearing in London of
involvement in the bizarre scheme to expose a love cheat, and was warned
that any further misconduct would result in him being struck off.
(Solicitors also fail lie
detector tests. UJ)

A former Anglesey
solicitor who stole £143,000 from clients has been jailed for
two-and-a-half years. Stephen Puleston Williams, 50, from Holyhead,
stole the money from clients over a three-year period. He admitted theft
and forgery at Chester Crown Court before being sentenced on Tuesday.

A solicitor who admitted
smuggling drugs into Glasgow's Barlinnie prison can now be named. It
follows a successful legal challenge by lawyers from media companies
including Scottish Television to a High Court ruling that Angela
Baillie's name should be kept out of the press. She is now facing a
lengthy prison sentence after pleading guilty.

A solicitor has admitted
supplying drugs to a Barlinnie Prison inmate. Heroin and diazepam with a
street value of more than £1,600 were handed over in a cigarette packet
which had been opened and resealed, the court heard.

A partner at one of
Britain’s biggest law firms stabbed his wife to death in a
"ferocious" attack just days after she told him she was having
an affair, a court heard today. Christopher Lumsden, 52, used a kitchen
knife to stab his wife Alison in the neck, face and back as she sat at a
dressing table in the bedroom of their home near Altrincham, Cheshire,
on the evening of March 16 last year.

A DISGRACED solicitor has
been struck off after borrowing tens of thousands of pounds from dead
clients' estates. A Law Society disciplinary tribunal found Adrian
Gerard Donkin, a trusted solicitor for 30 years, had acted dishonestly
by misusing money in customers' accounts, as loans for himself.
Donkin, whose three-and-a-quarter acre home in Boldon Lane, Cleadon, is
up for sale for £950,000, was also slammed for taking a £25,000
personal loan from a grieving woman too upset to accept inheritance
money after the death of her brother.

A DISGRACED solicitor who
plundered more than £143,000 from clients was yesterday warned he faced
jail. Stephen Pulston Williams, of Holborn Road, Holyhead, admitted four
charges of theft, three of false accounting, and one forgery charge. The
50-year-old was the senior partner in the longstanding law firm of
Prothero Williams with offices in Valley, Holyhead and Bangor. He was
struck off in 2002, after he admitted using clients' cash for his own
use, leaving a £172,000 black hole. The firm, closed down by a legal
watchdog, was later taken over.

A solicitor who used his
clients’ money when he ran his business from a hut in his garden at
Harlow, Essex, was struck off by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal.
Michael Blow, 55, had a £546,000 “black hole” in his accounts. Some
of the money will have to be found by the solicitors’ insurance fund.

A
SOLICITOR and his law firm must pay £360,000 to 63 investors involved
in a boiler room scam the Court of Appeal ruled today. John Martin and
Adrian Sam & Co ("ASC"), the former London-based law firm
at which Martin was a partner, were found guilty in December 2004 of
being involved in an illegal overseas investment firm's 'boiler room'
activities in the UK.

LONDON (Reuters) - A
solicitor was jailed for eight years on Thursday for stealing over 6
million pounds from his clients. Michael Fielding, 59, used his position
as a partner at law firm Lawrence Graham to fraudulently sign off
requests for scores of payments over a 3-year period. "At present,
140 unauthorised withdrawals totalling 6.5 million pounds have been
identified," police said after Fielding was sentenced at Southwark
Crown Court.

A top City lawyer, who
used to advise the Princess Diana Memorial Trust, is to be sentenced
this week after admitting stealing at least £6.5m from his clients.
Michael Fielding, a former partner at solicitors Lawrence Graham, was a
fugitive from justice for more than four years...

A solicitor who was
jailed for 28 days after admitting stealing from a charity has been
struck off by the Law Society. Christopher Savage was convicted at
Lowestoft Magistrate's Court in December after a court heard he had
abused his position as treasurer to the Beccles Round Table and Beccles
Business Association(BBA) by taking money destined for the James Paget
Hospital (JPH) at Gorleston.

A solicitor who embezzled
more than £100,000 from his Glasgow law firm has been jailed for two
years. Calum Blyth, 34, admitted taking the money from the firm's
account over two-and-a-half years in the late 1990s. Judge Lord McPhail
told the High Court in Edinburgh that cases of embezzling by solicitors
damaged public confidence in the legal profession.

A solicitor has been
jailed for grooming the 10-year-old daughter of a client before abusing
her.
Anthony Bare, 48, of Lumb Lane in Droylsden, Gtr Manchester, bought the
girl gifts before attacking her twice.

"I have a
problem with the Law Society. I run a wholesale business selling beers,
wines and spirits, and after a customer's cheque for £40,000 bounced,
we cut off supplies. The customer said new finance was being raised and
cash was imminent. We accepted an undertaking from the customer's
solicitor that we would be paid in full, so supplies were reinstated.
Well, the firm was refinanced, but we never received our cash as
promised and we put the firm into liquidation"..

Tony Hetherington
replies:

"LET'S name
names. The company that owes you money is called Tockheath. When it went
bust, you had received £16,500, leaving £23,500 due. And the solicitor
who gave the dud promise to pay you is Barry Roberts. Writing on the
notepaper of his firm, Roberts & Co of Sheffield, he said: 'As
solicitors for and on behalf of Tockheath, we hereby undertake to
discharge your outstanding account in the sum of £40,000 from the
proceeds of the refinancing operation.' What could be clearer? Roberts
was not writing on Tockheath notepaper, he did not sign himself as a
director of Tockheath and he wrote as a solicitor, nothing else. But
there is more to Roberts than meets the eye. Not long after he made his
promise to you, his firm was shut down by the Law Society"... Read
the full text, link on right:-

A NORTH Yorkshire
solicitor has been struck off after taking £20,000 from his firm's
accounts to pay his utility bills. A solicitors' tribunal yesterday
heard fellow partners at Northallerton firm Jefferson Willan and Co
became concerned Roland Heslop-Gill was withdrawing excessive sums every
month as salary.

A solicitor has been
jailed for 18 months after he stole £150,000 from two chronically ill
patients and from bank accounts of dead clients. Nicholas Pounder, 46,
from Porthcawl, south Wales, used the money to pay off credit card debts
Swansea Crown Court was told. He admitted 16 charges of theft, two of
false accounting, while 71 similar charges were taken into account.

A north Devon solicitor
who swindled clients out of more than £280,000 has been jailed for
three and a half years. Philip Huxtable, 58, from Hiscott near
Barnstaple, was found guilty last month of 11 charges of stealing from
clients. He tried to cover up his stealing by massively overcharging
clients, Bournemouth Crown Court was told. The Freemason, who has since
been made bankrupt, used the money to prop up his ailing business, Pitts
Tuckers, and to finance a lavish lifestyle.

A SOLICITOR who helped
his client plunder more than £2m from the pension fund of hundreds of
Scottish workers was jailed for two years yesterday. Carsten Iversen,
44, played a "vital role" in reassuring trustees that a
complex cash transfer scheme was above board.

A solicitor who stole
nearly £350,000 from clients and the Inland Revenue has been jailed for
four years for theft. Christopher McChrystal, 52, was caught when the
Law Society carried out an inspection at his sole practice on De
Montfort Street in Leicester.

A solicitor who sparked
controversy by adopting twin girls through the internet today lost his
High Court battle against being struck off for breaching strict
financial rules. Alan Kilshaw’s wife, Judith, appeared in person
before two senior judges to challenge the disciplinary ruling. She
argued that, as Mr Kilshaw, 50, had not been accused of dishonesty, he
should be subjected to a lesser penalty, such as suspension.

A SOLICITOR who served a
three-year jail sentence for helping a fraudster steal £425,000 has
been struck off by the Law Society. Susan Davies, 56, was sucked into an
advance fee scam aimed at a Korean developer hoping to raise the money
to provide a designer golf course at Eyehurst Farm, Kingswood. Davies
allowed the mastermind of the fraud, Andreas Kitallides, to withdraw the
money from her client account after falling for his flattery. But, while
he avoided charges by fleeing to South Africa, Davies was forced to
plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud.

A former lawyer who
swindled clients out of almost £700,000 has been ordered to pay back £100,000.
John Kennedy Forster, 55, from Stranraer, has been serving a
six-and-a-half year prison sentence for embezzling £667,000.

A bigamous solicitor has
been jailed for six months for stealing thousands of pounds from a dead
client's account to pay for her marriage. Marylena Shuti, 29, wrote
cheques for £6,000 and £2,000 from the estate of Clifford Parkinson,
and paid them into her account, Luton Crown Court heard.

A solicitor stole more
than £825,000 from the Inland Revenue by paying money into a bogus bank
account he had set up in the name of "Ian Revue", a court
heard yesterday. Ian Macfarlane lived in an "idyllic" country
house worth £750,000, drove a Mercedes, educated his children at an
independent prep school and used the proceeds of his crime "like a
cashpoint".Macfarlane, 44, a partner at Traill & Co, in
Blandford, Dorset,...

A LAW firm has been
forced to pay out over £100,000 to 13 former Yorkshire miners after
handling their claims for compensation negligently. Some of the claims
against Doncaster solicitors Shaw & Co were prompted by a Yorkshire
Post investigation into the Yorkshire Compensation Recovery Service,
which referred clients to the firm.

Immigrant visa scam
lawyer jailed
A north London lawyer who made thousands of pounds charging immigrants
for bogus visas has been jailed for nine years at Croydon Crown Court.
Chris Christodoulides, from Enfield, used forged documents to help
hundreds of Romanian immigrants gain visas.The 38-year-old admitted
charges of conspiracy to defraud the Home Office and facilitate illegal
entry to the UK.

Barrister is disbarred
after calling his instructing solicitor a 'nigger' (Redacted
July 2008)

An Oxford-educated lawyer
has become the first barrister to be disbarred for racism after he
called a senior black solicitor a "nigger" and suggested he
returned to Ghana. Joseph Sykes made his comments (about
returning to Ghana) in a letter to a London solicitor, Philip
Glah,...

Police who investigated a
solicitor jailed for six years after stealing more than £1 million from
the estates of dead clients today described his crimes as a “betrayal
of trust of staggering proportions”.
John Ingham, 60, was jailed at Leeds Crown Court yesterday after
admitting 19 counts of theft from accounts held by his firm in Otley,
West Yorkshire.

A former district judge
who was sacked for being drunk was today banned from practising law for
three years over serious financial irregularities and ordered to pay £15,000
costs. David Messenger, 50, of Scalby Road, Scarborough, North
Yorkshire, used a client’s money taken from his law firm Messengers
for his own personal benefit.

A greedy barrister hired
to root out corruption in the travel industry was jailed for
four-and-a-half years today after swindling his bosses out of nearly £1
million. Ricardo Nardi, 36, was nicknamed “Mr Clean” after being
taken on as legal services chief at the Association of British Travel
Agents.

A SOLICITOR who used his
clients’ money to buy a holiday home and pay staff wages, has been
barred from practising on his own for 10 years. Daniel Hurley, a
solicitor who owns a law firm in Galway city, was censured by the High
Court after an investigation into his accounts by the Solicitors
Disciplinary Tribunal, an independent body that deals with complaints
against lawyers.

The SDT ordered that the
respondent, of 22 Meadow Lane, East Herrington, Sunderland SR3 3RG, who
at all material times had been in practice on his own account, should be
struck off the Roll for unbefitting conduct in that, on 23 September
2003, he had been tried and convicted on indictment of conspiracy to
defraud at Newcastle Crown Court, and on 16 January 2004 had been
sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment. The SDT found that the
conviction of a solicitor for a criminal offence involving dishonesty
flew in the face of the fundamental requirement that a member of the
profession be a person of the highest integrity, probity and
trustworthiness.

John Richard Ingham was
struck off by the Law Society last month after the Solicitors'
Disciplinary Tribunal heard he had plundered money from accounts for
years. Yesterday Ingham, 60, who was a partner in the firm of Barret
Chamberlain, in Manor Square, Otley, appeared at Leeds Crown Court and
pleaded guilty to 19 charges of theft totalling more than £980,000 from
the beneficiaries of different clients prior to June 2003.

A CROOKED solicitor who
milked £43,000 from his firm when his bosses failed to give him a
promised pay rise was struck off on Tuesday.Panikkos Panayi, 39, vowed
to "get even" with his partners at Heckford Norton in
Letchworth GC when they decided against the increase.

A DISHONEST Wirral
solicitor used £10,000 entrusted to him by a client to pay his own
salary, a disciplinary hearing was told yesterday. Gordon Kingan, 50,
was thrown out of the profession after the tribunal heard how he also
used a cheque drawn on his client's account to pay his mortgage.

A barrister employed to
unearth corruption in the British travel industry was behind bars today
after admitting defrauding the organisation that hired him. Ricardo
Nardi, 36, who was the head of legal services at the Association of
British Travel Agents, siphoned off nearly £1 million from its coffers
during a seven-year betrayal of trust.

"A man may have a
duty on one side and an interest on another. A solicitor who puts
himself in that position takes upon himself a grievous responsibility. A
solicitor may have a duty on one side and a duty on the other, namely, a
duty to his client as solicitor on the one side and a duty to his
beneficiaries on the other; but if he chooses to put himself in that
position it does not lie in his mouth to say to the client 'I have not
discharged that which the law says is my duty towards you, my client,
because I owe a duty to the beneficiaries on the other side'. The answer
is that if a solicitor involves himself in that dilemma it is his own
fault. He ought before putting himself in that position to inform the
client of his conflicting duties, and either obtain from that client an
agreement that he should not perform his full duties of disclosure or
say - which would be much better - 'I cannot accept this business.' I
think it would be the worst thing to say that a solicitor can escape
from the obligations, imposed upon him as solicitor, of disclosure if he
can prove that it is not a case of duty on one side and of interest on
the other, but a case of duty on both sides and therefore impossible to
perform."

In this case the poor
soul had to wait FIFTEEN years before even getting a sniff at justice.
UJ.

A PROBATE manager for a
Suffolk solicitors' firm who stole £19,000 from clients' estates to pay
off gambling debts has been jailed for 18 months. Father-of-three Gary
Beales used bank cards given to him for safekeeping to withdraw money
from cash points and even bought himself a car with £7,000 taken from
another estate, Ipswich Crown Court heard yesterday.

SEVEN solicitors were
accused yesterday of misusing huge sums of clients' money to try to keep
their business afloat. It was claimed the partners in Hull firm Carrick
Carr Wright kept stamp duty and land registry money in office accounts
to reduce their overdraft. Cashier Kevin Rooney even gave himself a
bonus to help pay for a holiday villa, the Solicitors' Disciplinary
Tribunal heard.

A SOLICITORS' clerk has
been barred from the profession after writing a reference for a relative
who had never worked for the firm. David Kirunda, 48, also took a
van-load of 325 files from one practice without the permission of the
boss and moonlighted for another company.

A SOUTH Wales solicitor
has admitted stealing more than £110,000 from his law firm. Nicholas
Pounder, 46, admitted 16 offences of theft and two of false accounting
at Swansea crown court yesterday. (12 Jan)

A barrister has been
disbarred for trying to represent two alleged killers in separate trials
at the same time, in crown courts 130 miles apart. To compound the
strain on Colin William Campbell, his personal life was "in
turmoil", his defence counsel later told a Bar disciplinary
tribunal.

A disgraced solicitor was
last night starting a 28-day jail sentence after admitting stealing
money destined for charity by defrauding two business groups.
Christopher Savage's solicitor said the 44-year-old father of two had
suffered from "rogue file syndrome" after taking around £1300
from the Beccles Business Association (BBA) and Beccles Round Table.

A solicitor who stole £630,000
to pay compensation he failed to secure for his clients has been jailed.
Donald Halling, 54, of Central Avenue, South Shields, stole the money
from the wills of other deceased clients. He pleaded guilty to 12
forgery and seven theft charges and to attempting to pervert the course
of justice.

A crooked lawyer acted as
a "cloak of respectability" for businessmen involved in a
multi-million pound cargo planes deal. Ian Hutchinson, 56, of Trinity
Road, Paddington, allowed his firm's headed paper to
be used to approach airlines and moneylenders on behalf of a group of
companies, without having carried out the proper checks.

A CROOKED solicitor who
helped evil "Snakehead" gangsters to smuggle hundreds of
Chinese asylum into the country was struck off last Tuesday. Titus
Miranda, 58, ran his firm as a "factory of lies" coaching
migrants on how to convince the authorities that they were the victims
of religious persecution.

A TASMANIAN solicitor is
behind bars tonight after pleading guilty to defrauding investors of
$1.4 million. Haydn James Dodge, of Sorell, was remanded in custody
after pleading guilty in the Supreme Court of Tasmania to three counts
of conspiracy to defraud investors.

A WEALTHY city lawyer who
admitted embezzling £20,000 from clients has caused outrage after it
was revealed he was given taxpayers’ cash during his court case.
Critics have slammed a decision to pay legal aid to Richard McAnulty,
46, despite the fact he lives in a £400,000 house, drives a Mercedes,
runs a successful chain of sandwich shops and has two children at a
fee-paying school.

A flamboyant lawyer best
known for representing murderer Tracie Andrews has served a jail
sentence for masterminding a multi-million Legal Aid fraud, it can be
revealed today. Solicitor Timothy Robinson, now 60, was convicted of
conspiring to systematically defraud the Legal Aid system of huge sums
of cash over a period of almost six years." (Independent)

"More than 20 staff
from Robinsons Solicitors - which had offices in Cheltenham, Gloucester,
Bristol and Swindon - have been convicted of defrauding the Legal Aid
system. On Friday, as the final trial collapsed, reporting restrictions
were lifted, and the full extent of the crimes could at last be
revealed." (BBC)

An
account of the case is also published today by the Gloucestershire
Constabulary in an information pack “Operation Alison”. Contact
Chelmsford (01242) 276071.

A solicitors' watchdog
has welcomed a ruling to strike off two solicitors who stole £53,000
from a bankrupt client. Peter Wilson, aged 57, and Richard Lloyd, aged
56, have been thrown out of their profession after admitting dishonesty.

A DISGRACED lawyer
accused of fleecing cash has gone bankrupt owing up to £750,000.
Douglas Criggie, 47, was investigated by the fraud squad after
allegations that he swiped clients' money at his Edinburgh practice.

ONE of Yorkshire's
leading lawyers was fined £10,000 yesterday after an £80,000 insurance
cheque was put into the office account instead of being paid to a widow.
A Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal heard that Max Gold Partnership, of
Silver Street, Hull, operated a life insurance scheme that paid out in
the event of the death of an employee. When worker James Evans died in
2001, his wife Mary should have received £80,000.

The Law Society wants us
to love our solicitors, but the number of complaints means it is a
difficult case to prove. 'My hero, my solicitor' is the unlikely slogan
for a poster campaign designed to impress upon an uncaring British
public just how wonderful lawyers are. 'Hero' certainly isn't the word
that David Smith would choose to sum up his feelings towards his lawyer.

Seven staff blamed for
helping to land a £7.5 million compensation bill on Birmingham housing
department have been sacked. The seven had been responsible for
examining council houses where tenants were suing the council for
allowing the properties to fall into disrepair. Three of the seven have
now found jobs with the same legal firms which pocketed millions by
winning compensation for tenants, it emerged today.

A LAWYER who conned
clients out of more than £19,000 was jailed for 18 months yesterday.
Edinburgh sheriff Douglas Allan told 46-year old Richard McAnulty a
custodial sentence was the only appropriate one.

A CALDERDALE solicitor
was among five people to appear in court accused of taking part in a
housing scam. Norman Hopwood (77), of Bramley Lane, Hipperholme, and
Maria Kitson, (50), of Parkwood Street, Keighley, are charged along with
Mehfooz Hussain, (26), Shakeela Bibi, (26) and Mahmood Hussain, (31),
all of Fairfield Road, Idle, Bradford, with conspiracy to defraud.

A LAWYER is facing jail
after admitting embezzling money from his clients. Richard McAnulty, 46,
has admitted embezzling £19,484 from the accounts of a number of his
clients - including almost £7000 from the estate of two who were
deceased.

A BANKRUPT lawyer who
fleeced investors out of their life-savings while he racked up debts of
£1million is back to his old tricks. Rogue solicitor Paul Anderson, 42,
left dozens of people in ruins after enticing them to invest in his
get-rich-quick mortgage business.

Ian Wilfred Dodd had
improperly assisted and/or encouraged clients and/or third parties to
invest funds in a financial scheme(s) which he ought to have known was,
or had the hallmarks of, an advance fee fraud.

A ROSSENDALE solicitor
has been struck off for "improper and unacceptable" behaviour.
Michael Tracey, 46, of Meadows Avenue, Haslingden, was one of three
lawyers who set up a "sham" partnership to get round
conditions imposed on a colleague by the Law Society.

Three lawyers faced being
struck off today over accusations of involvement in running a sham
practice.
Among them is Aurangzeb Iqbal, who represented a dozen defendants
following the Bradford riots in the mid-1990s and who was involved with
Bradford City Football Club.

A SOLICITOR attempted to
introduce investments into a billion dollar oil-drilling scheme by
falsely claiming $10 million was being held by his employers, a
disciplinary tribunal heard yesterday. Philip Merrills-Dearn, aged 35,
of Kilcock, Co Kildare, formed a company for carrying out the work but
used his solicitor employers’ offices and headed notepaper to add
credibility, it was claimed.

Updated 27 May
2005: "...the SDT was not satisfied to
the high standard required that he had been dishonest." Law
Society Gazette

LAWYERS were today facing
a crackdown on client charges to counter fears of profiteering. The Law
Society is drawing up a new code of conduct for solicitors after figures
showing record profits for top firms.

A PRESTWICH solicitor has
been suspended for six months and his former partner struck off
following a disciplinary tribunal held over allegations their firm had
been at the centre of a £750,000 legal aid scam. Declan Adams, aged 43,
of Leach Mews,...

A Perth lawyer who
defrauded finance companies of more than $13 million has been jailed for
six years. Rohan George Skea received the six-year sentence after
District Court chief judge Antoinette Kennedy said he had cooperated
fully with police.

An Accounts manager for a
city law firm who stole nearly £60,000 from his employers and spent it
on cars and holidays has been jailed for two years. Andrew Erskine, aged
39, ripped off Redland-based Bevans solicitors by transferring funds
belonging to the firm and its clients into his own bank account, Bristol
Crown Court heard.

Three NSW solicitors have
been formally stripped of their licence to practise over trust fund
irregularities worth almost $3 million. Stephen Gill misappropriated
almost $1.9 million between 1994 and 2002 as he worked in the Newcastle
region, while Kevin Minotti spent about $750,000 belonging to clients of
his Bondi Junction practice. Another solicitor, Malcolm Hansen, lost his
right to practise yesterday because a clerk at his Queanbeyan firm had
misappropriated more than $310,000

A successful young lawyer
stole more than $80,000 from a leading city law firm to fund an
extravagant lifestyle that included a city apartment and party drugs.
Donna-Marie Field was 25 years old and earning $90,000 a year as a
senior associate at Blake Dawson Waldron when she was caught claiming
reimbursements for false expenses.

A SOLICITOR from near
Solihull who plundered more than £400,000 from clients' accounts was
jailed for four-and-a-half years at Birmingham Crown Court last
Thursday. Michael Lee, 63, of Pund Field, Wootton Wawen, took the
cash...

TWO lawyers were banned
from every court in Scotland and several others are under investigation
in a multi-million pound legal aid probe. The Scottish Legal Aid Board
(SLAB) slapped a four-week ban on freelancer Iain McPeake.

A former solicitor who
plundered more than £400,000 from clients' accounts was jailed for
four-and-a-half years yesterday. Michael Lee (63), of Pund Field,
Wootton Wawen, Warwickshire, took the cash over a period of two to three
years while principal of Michael Lee & Co, based in Coventry Road,
Small Heath, Birmingham.

AN INCOMPETENT solicitor
who made a series of blunders involving clients' money has been
suspended from the profession indefinitely. Simon Cannon, 44, ended up
closing down his firm after encountering severe financial and personal
problems.

A SOLICITOR lied to
another lawyer when he helped organise an astonishing £2.5 million 'cashback'
scheme, a tribunal heard on Thursday. Richard Caplan, 51, claimed he had
checked that the offer was backed by insurers when it wasn't.

A barrister appointed by
the Association of British Travel Agents to root out corruption in the
travel industry has been charged with, errr, fraud. Defrauding his
employers of £1 million, to be exact. Riccardo Nardi is now looking at
an all-inclusive package deal of 23 criminal charges...

A SUNDERLAND solicitor
has been struck-off after stealing £114,355 from clients, a tribunal
heard.
Duncan Wall, who recently worked for Harding, Swinburne, Jackson &
Co solicitors in Frederick Street, Sunderland, made 167 improper
transactions from clients accounts while running his own practice, under
his own name, in Coronation Street, South Shields.

A SECRET dossier linked
to a murdered police informer names criminals, corrupt police and a
lawyer in a string of drug, bribery and murder plots. A PROMINENT
solicitor acted as a bagman to bribe detectives to reduce charges
against two alleged drug dealers linked to Hodson.

A Shropshire solicitor
convicted of theft and forgery has been struck off by a disciplinary
panel. Andrew Nicholls, who was a partner at the firm Dakin Nicholls of
Shifnal, was given a three-month suspended jail term by Telford
magistrates last year.

A solicitor who gave
endowment mortgage victims hopes of a legal route to compensation has
been banned from practicing for a year. Joseph Aaron, from Ilford, Essex
...Joseph Aaron says he was "properly regulated by the Law
Society" and was not obliged to reveal his disciplinary record.

A NORTH Wales solicitor
and former Bangor City chairman was struck off yesterday amid
allegations of dishonesty. John Ross-Jones, 59, of Dolwyddelan, Conwy,
was alleged to have misused clients' money and not paid it into proper
accounts.

A third solicitor has
been charged with laundering drugs cash, police revealed today.
John Greenwood, 48, of Manchester Road, near Colne, Lancashire, was
charged yesterday with conspiracy to money launder following a National
Crime Squad investigation. John
Greenwood cleared 26 July 2005

Mr Peter Lyle Sharp, a
former solicitor from Albury, New South Wales (NSW), was sentenced today
in the NSW District Court to five years jail with a non-parole period of
three years in relation to 39 charges brought by the Australian
Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). Mr Sharp had earlier
pleaded guilty to 16 charges under the Corporations Act of making
improper use of his position as the director of Tietyens Investments Pty
Ltd to gain an advantage directly or indirectly for himself, and 23
charges under the Crimes Act of New South Wales, of concurring in the
making of false statements with intent to obtain a financial advantage.

Thirty-seven women who
claimed they were sexually assaulted by the disgraced gynaecologist
Rodney Ledward have been left with large legal bills. Mistakes
by solicitor Jane Loveday resulted in their High Court bid for
compensation collapsing in January.

A Solicitor jailed for
eight years for crimes including fleecing more than £300,000 from
clients has been denied leave to appeal against his sentence....all
cases of theft by solicitors resulted in considerable damage to public
confidence in the legal system but this was a particularly bad case.

A LAWYER who admitted a
string of charges was suspended indefinitely at a disciplinary hearing.
Solicitor Geoffrey Stuart Lawton, 63, of Crowther Road, Heckmondwike,
practised on his own under the name of GS Lawton and Co, of North Lane,
Headingley, Leeds.

A solicitor who stole a
million pounds by swindling clients out of money from compensation
claims has been struck off. Dmytro Torkoniak lied to the victims of
accidents and illness about the amount of compensation they'd been
awarded.

A YORKSHIRE solicitor was
beginning a two-and-a-half year jail sentence today for plundering more
than £114,000 from client accounts. Timothy Farrant, 52, siphoned the
money over nine years while a partner at Pinkney Grunwells in
Scarborough.

A High Court judge
dramatically halted a hearing today and reported an “incompetent”
firm of solicitors dealing with an asylum seeker to the body which
administers the legal aid system.
The extraordinary action was taken by Mr Justice Goldring after he
criticised Abbot and Co, based in Woolwich New Road, south east
London,...

TWO Liverpool solicitors
who allowed their busy firm's accounts to become a "complete
mess" were fined a total of £8,000 yesterday.
Action was taken against Michael Ellenbogen, 43, and Andrew James, 52,
after a Law Society inspector found the books would not balance.

A CHESHIRE solicitor who
delayed properly dealing with a will for four years was fined £3,000
yesterday.
David Sims, 63, broke strict legal rules by failing to locate the dead
person's assets or apply for probate to tie up the estate.

A CROOKED Sheffield
lawyer who pocketed hundreds of pounds of homebuyers' cash has been
struck off the solicitors' roll. Paul Bateman, aged 35, a former partner
at city centre firm Cunnington's on Trippet Lane, may now face a police
investigation into his dishonesty.

THE wealthiest Aboriginal
land council in NSW has appointed as its chief executive disgraced
barrister Paul Coe, who was paid thousands of dollars by the same
organisation for legal advice although he had been struck off.

A former White & Case
lawyer has been sent to a boot camp in Buffalo after stealing over
$111,000 from the firm. Jennifer Hampton pleaded guilty to first degree
fraud and second degree grand larceny...

A LAWYER exposed in a
Manchester Evening News investigation has been accused of 10 cases of
legal aid fraud and of using a false university degree certificate when
applying to be a solicitor. Liaqat Malik, 46,...

A
solicitor and a legal representative appeared in court today charged
with laundering drugs cash.
Basil Dearing was before Preston magistrates charged with four matters
relating to the transfer of the proceeds of drug trafficking. Basil
Dearing cleared 26 July 2005

A former president of
Burnley Law Society has been accused of money laundering and conspiracy
to pervert the course of justice. Basil Dearing (Now
cleared), 60, of Lower Chapel Lane, Grindleton, Lancashire, was
charged on Tuesday as part of a National Crime Squad investigation.
Solicitor, 53-year-old John Broughton of Pasture Drive in Colne, was
charged with the same offences. Eight other people have been charged
with similar offences. John
Broughton cleared 26 July 2005

A crooked Birmingham
solicitor involved in a series of fraudulent mortgage deals which made a
fortune for his client has been kicked out of the profession.
City lawyer Colin Barr, 47, failed to disclose vital information to
building societies as they lent money for a series of dubious property
purchases.

A
CONVICTED murderer who qualified as a solicitor has been kicked out of
the profession for trying to kill his wife. Incredibly, Law Society
officials were convinced he was safe to work as a lawyer following his
release on life licence after he knifed a 17-year-old to death on a
dance floor. (Well, the Law Society's not fussy about who it lets
in, is it? UJ)

High court orders
inquiry into law firm. .. "enormous concern" by the
conduct of a solicitor, Jane Loveday, who ran up a legal aid bill of up
to £2m representing women claiming assaults by the struck-off
gynaecologist Rodney Ledward.

NEW YORK (Reuters)
- A London solicitor, Andrew Warren, has pleaded guilty to attempted
racketeering in connection with an international stock fraud conspiracy
that operated in New York and Britain, prosecutors said Thursday. Warren
is a former partner of London solicitors Talbot, Greggy & Co

A struggling Sussex
solicitor who plundered the estate of a dead couple has been jailed for
nine months. Jill Radford, 54 and a mother of six, cashed cheques
totalling £45,505 over 18 months from money left in the wills of Mr and
Mrs Duggan while working as executor to their estate.

A CROOKED solicitor who
raided clients' bank accounts while his business partner was seriously
ill has been struck off. Pamela Higab was battling cancer when officials
launched a probe into Philip Pressler. But Higab was brought before a
tribunal as a result of Pressler's transfers. She accepted two breaches
of the profession's rules over the scandal at Hindle, Son and Cooper
Solicitors, Darwen, but was cleared of all blame after it was accepted
she could not have known Pressler was on the fiddle. Ian Ryan, for the
Law Society, said Pressler transferred £87,255 from clients' accounts
into his own account on four occasions between February 17, 1998, and
May 5, 2001.

A lawyer who embezzled
money from his clients to fund his extravagant lifestyle has been jailed
for 11 years. Alastair Hall, from Perthshire, stole about £500,000
worth of cash and shares, often from elderly clients and used the money
to pay for shooting and fishing weekends.

A CORRUPT solicitor was
jailed for five years yesterday for a "long-standing, skilful and
deliberate" fraud of the legal aid fund. John Tate submitted
thousands of bogus green forms claiming fees for work he said he had
carried out on behalf of clients. Newcastle Crown Court heard that the
50-year-old submitted 8,000 bogus claims between 1996 and 1999 using
names of clients he met at job clubs some years earlier.

A LAWYER'S career lay in
ruins today after he was jailed for 18 months for his part in a scam
involving £1.2m worth of stolen travellers cheques. Yasin Mohamed, 29,
helped dispose of some of the cheques stolen in a raid at Heathrow
Airport. Mohamed, who co-ordinated deals from his solicitor's practice
in Oldham, was arrested after selling £15,000 of stolen cheques to an
undercover police officer.

A DISHONEST solicitor,
who helped himself to £19,000 from clients after they sent in the money
to pay off medical bills, has been struck off. Paul Rowlands, aged 35,
pocketed the cash over a four-year period while working at law firms.

A PENARTH solicitor has
been struck off after using £12,000 from his firm's client account.
Nigel Richardson, 54, of Park Road, even made a credit card payment of
£1,500 out of the money, a solicitors' disciplinary tribunal heard last
Thursday.

A
MILLIONAIRE solicitor who stole more than £73,000 from his 91-year-old
aunt so he could buy a boat was jailed for six months yesterday. The
money was meant to pay her rest home fees. But the court was told that
David Benham, 59, sold two shares and used the proceeds to buy the £35,000
boat.

A Finchley solicitor who
was jailed for seven years in February this year for money laundering
was struck off by a disciplinary committee last week. Louis Glatt, 54,
of Chessington Avenue, was found guilty of conspiring to launder almost
£2.3million from Southgate crime boss Ellis Martin's bootleg tobacco
and alcohol trade, through his Mayfair firm between October 1994 and
January 1997

A solicitor stole more
than £250,000 from clients to pay off his debts before fleeing abroad,
a tribunal heard. David Rawlings, 55, used the money to pay for his
children's public school fees and his spiralling tax bill.

A SOLICITOR from
Harpenden was jailed for three years and nine months on Friday, August
31, for stealing a third of a million pounds of clients' money. Myles
McNulty, 37, of Granby Avenue, bought expensive cars and paid off the
loans and credit cards he used to fund his lifestyle with his clients'
cash Luton Crown Court was told.

Embezzling solicitor
jailed
A solicitor who was struck off after embezzling more than £63,000 has
been jailed for five and a half years. Donald Pirie, 41, took money from
clients for more than three years to keep his debt-ridden practice in
Cowdenbeath going.

A SOLICITOR who acted for
clients against a firm of which he was a director has been struck off
after being found guilty of professional misconduct. Philip Redfern,
aged 51, of Pendle View, Brockhall Village, Old Langho, near Blackburn,
who used to work in Farnworth and Bury, had also breached undertakings
and delayed in dealing with conveyancing matters.

A solicitor has been
struck off for a catalogue of errors including borrowing £20,000 from
an elderly woman and not paying it back. A disciplinary tribunal also
heard Anthony Thipthorpe, 60, failed to safeguard a family's interests
during a probate dispute which allegedly cost them £50,000.

Michael James Palmer
sentenced to 3 years imprisonment
The former senior partner of a leading firm of West End solicitors,
Michael James Palmer, ("Palmer") was sentenced today at the
Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, in respect of 17 offences involving
conspiracy to defraud, theft, forgery and false accounting. Palmer
pleaded guilty to these offences, which arose out of his management of
deceased clients' estates involving a sum of over £250,000, at a
previous hearing a month ago on 19 March 1999.

A FORMER Greenwich
solicitor has been struck off after forging a client's will to make a
profit.
Peter Casey Wells, who worked from offices in Greenwich High Road, was
found guilty of offences "so serious that it could only have one
consequence" at a tribunal last week.

A SOLICITOR faces a
further investigation after she was fined £1,500 for being in contempt
of court by a High Court judge. Lawyer Miss Bushra Anwar was accused of
"disgraceful behaviour" by the judge, Mr Justice Sachs, who
ordered that a copy of his ruling be sent to the Office for the
Supervision of Solicitors. The Blackburn-based lawyer - the first Asian
woman in East Lancashire to have her own legal practice - was also
ordered to pay damages of £1,000 to Mr Mohammed Afzal for loss of his
reputation, as well as a further £57 for damages to his property and
part of his legal fees.Sitting at the High Court in Manchester, Mr Sachs
told Miss Anwar that it would be "outrageous" if she was to
"escape the consequences of her disgraceful behaviour".